Delegation from ECOWAS enters coup-torn Niger

An earlier attempt to meet Bazoum and the coup leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, by an ECOWAS group led by Abubakar earlier this month ended in failure.

Sources close to the group and deposed President Mohamed Bazoum told AFP that a delegation from the West African ECOWAS arrived in Niger on Saturday for discussions with the military officers who had taken control.

After generals overthrew and arrested Bazoum on July 26, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided to activate a “standby force” as a last resort to bring democracy back to Niger.

However, it asserts that it encourages dialogue to diffuse the problem.

A day after the military commanders of the bloc declared they were prepared to intervene to reinstate Bazoum, a jet carrying the delegation made an estimated 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) landing in the nation’s capital Niamey.

The presence of the ECOWAS delegation, led by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar, was confirmed by Niger’s ruling military council.

An earlier attempt to meet Bazoum and the coup leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, by an ECOWAS group led by Abubakar earlier this month ended in failure.

The most recent delegation, according to a source close to it, would meet Bazoum and deliver “a message of firmness” to the army officers.

In order to finalise plans for a potential military intervention to reinstall Bazoum if ongoing talks with the coup leaders fall down, ECOWAS defence chiefs convened this week in Accra, Ghana.

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After the meeting of the military chiefs, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs and security Abdel-Fatau Musah declared, “We are ready to go whenever the order is given.”

Additionally decided is the D-Day.

After Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso had coups since 2020, the leaders of ECOWAS say they must take action after Niger became the fourth West African country to do so.

Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group-affiliated jihadist insurgencies are becoming more prevalent in the Sahel region, which is struggling. Part of what led to the military takeovers was annoyance with the bloodshed.

Since 1990, ECOWAS forces have gotten involved in additional crises, such as the civil conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Troops for a mission in Niger are anticipated from Ivory Coast, Benin, and Nigeria.

AFP